Despite Acquittal, Kevin Spacey Faces Uphill Battle for Hollywood Roles

The two-time Oscar winner Kevin Spacey stated final month that he was able to return to appearing after years within the wilderness following sexual assault allegations.

“I know that there are people right now who are ready to hire me the moment I am cleared of these charges in London,” Mr. Spacey informed a German journal, referring to accusations that he had assaulted 4 males. “The second that happens, they’re ready to move forward.”

Mr. Spacey was proper in a number of methods: A British jury discovered him not responsible of 9 counts of sexual assault this week, almost a yr after a federal jury in Manhattan cleared him of battery in a civil case filed by the actor Anthony Rapp. And he has two small initiatives awaiting launch, with administrators who couldn’t be extra publicly supportive.

But the starry Hollywood roles, like Spacey’s conniving politician in “House of Cards” and droll promoting govt in “American Beauty,” could not come again anytime quickly, if in any respect.

Despite Mr. Spacey’s authorized successes, his public notion is tarnished and a turnoff to studios and streaming providers determined to keep away from controversy, stated Stephen Galloway, the dean of Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts.

“He’s in real trouble,” stated Mr. Galloway, who beforehand served as govt editor of The Hollywood Reporter. “On the 0-to-10 scale, this is like a minus one.”

During Mr. Spacey’s trial in Britain, he testified in regards to the injury to his profession after the general public accusations started to emerge in 2017. “There was a rush to judgment and before the first question was asked or answered, I lost my job, I lost my reputation, I lost everything,” he stated.

Within months of the preliminary allegation, Mr. Spacey’s character was killed off within the last season of “House of Cards,” his scenes as J. Paul Getty in “All the Money in the World” had been reshot with a unique actor, and Netflix scrapped the movie “Gore,” wherein he performed the author Gore Vidal.

Beyond two lately filmed elements listed on IMDb, a film database, it’s unclear whether or not Mr. Spacey is hooked up to any new initiatives. His crew didn’t reply to a request for remark, and Mr. Spacey didn’t present profession perception after being acquitted this week. “I imagine that many of you can understand that there’s a lot for me to process,” he stated from the courthouse steps.

Mike Paul, a public relations skilled who focuses on repute and disaster administration, stated that contemplating the character of the accusations Mr. Spacey confronted, he should keep away from “pouring gasoline back on issues that you don’t want gasoline on.” Hollywood, he stated, desires to see a time of reflection and quiet evaluation.

The greatest guess, Mr. Galloway stated, is for Mr. Spacey to develop initiatives for his manufacturing firm, Trigger Street, or to pursue indie initiatives that worth his appearing prowess or take into account the publicity a boon.

Mr. Spacey’s two recognized upcoming roles are in minor films: “Control,” a British movie wherein he performs a hacker who takes over a politician’s sensible automobile (his half is voice solely), and “Peter Five Eight,” a comedic thriller wherein he performs a shadowy stranger who arrives in a small mountainside neighborhood.

Michael Zaiko Hall, the author and director of “Peter Five Eight,” stated in an e-mail that the movie, which doesn’t have an official launch date, represented a return to the smaller impartial movies with which Mr. Spacey began his profession.

“We have here a double Oscar winner with legendary screen presence whose name has just been cleared,” Hall stated. “I imagine there will be a thaw period, followed by a re-emergence into the culture.”

Gene Fallaize, the author and director of “Control,” stated that he approached Mr. Spacey for the voice function final fall, and that the latest verdict confirmed “our gamble had paid off.” Before the jury’s resolution, his film had distribution offers in Germany, Russia and the Middle East. Now, Mr. Fallaize stated, it was negotiating with American and British distributors.

Mr. Fallaize added that Mr. Spacey may have to do impartial films for a yr or two, exhibiting he may generate industrial returns, earlier than main studios can be ready to work with him. Those films might need to be in nations which have a extra “lenient” view to allegations made towards stars, Mr. Fallaize added.

“It’s more likely for Europe to be receptive,” agreed Dominik Sedlar, a Croatian-born director and good friend of Mr. Spacey’s whose father made a film this yr wherein the actor performed the nation’s first president.

Mr. Sedlar stated that though Mr. Spacey had twice been vindicated by juries, Hollywood studios may maintain shunning the actor “rather than admit they were wrong.”

In latest years, each the Venice and Cannes movie festivals have been completely satisfied to showcase work by administrators and actors whose repute has been stained within the United States, together with Woody Allen, Roman Polanski and Johnny Depp. On Thursday, spokeswomen for each festivals stated their inventive administrators had been unavailable to touch upon Mr. Spacey.

There was comparable reluctance from members of the London theater world, the place Mr. Spacey was a daily star within the Nineties and 2000s and served because the inventive director of the Old Vic theater from 2004 to 2015. Representatives for 15 producers, West End theater homeowners and inventive administrators both turned down or didn’t reply to interview requests to debate Mr. Spacey’s future.

Alistair Smith, editor of The Stage, Britain’s main theater newspaper, stated in an e-mail that Mr. Spacey’s return was “highly unlikely.” In 2017 the Old Vic printed the findings of an impartial investigation into Mr. Spacey’s tenure that exposed that 20 unnamed folks accused him of unspoken inappropriate conduct.

“Those allegations have never been satisfactorily addressed by Spacey,” Smith stated. “Unless they are, I can’t see him working in London theater again.”

Comebacks have all the time been laborious in Hollywood, which can be politically liberal however is artistically and financially conservative. For those that have succeeded, resembling Mel Gibson and Robert Downey Jr., the street was lengthy.

“You need to completely reset your reputation,” Mr. Galloway stated. In “fortress Hollywood, the drawbridge is pulled up, and it’s a dangerous moat to swim across.”